


Explaining Graphically

by katling



Series: Tony Stark Bingo [24]
Category: Doctor Strange (2016), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: A mystery ensues, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Diverges after TWS, Gen, Not Avengers friendly, Not Natasha Friendly, Not Steve Friendly, Pre-Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie), Team Tony, moderate for my peace of mind, not team Cap friendly, so to speak
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-20
Updated: 2020-02-07
Packaged: 2020-09-19 02:01:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,423
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20323249
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/katling/pseuds/katling
Summary: Tony is sent a bunch of comics, ostensibly from a fan. The comics are not what they seem but the outside impression is very valuable.Written for the Tony Stark Bingo 2019 - Square R1: Comics





	1. Chapter 1

Tony sighed as the door of his workshop closed behind him and took a long drink from his coffee. There were days when he liked being a part of the Avengers and then there were days like today, where he could gladly throw the whole lot of them off the Tower and not even bat an eyelid. He made a mental note to accelerate the development of the Compound because if he had to have the Avengers and their general dysfunction around his Tower for too much longer, he was _really_ going to do something drastic. There was already too much dysfunction in the Tower with just himself.

The unexpected presence of paper in the workshop caught his eye and he frowned as he wandered over to the nearest bench. “Hey, J? Where did this come from?”

“Ms Potts dropped then off about an hour ago,” JARVIS replied. “She thought you might like to see them.”

Tony made an absent humming noise and sat down on his stool. He rolled it over to the bench and picked up the papers. He was surprised to find that they were comics and rather exceptionally well-drawn ones as well. They were about the Avengers and showed the team going on various missions. After a moment, he realised they were very familiar missions.

“How did she get these?” he asked absently as he slowly flipped through them. “I didn’t think we’d authorised any comics for the Avengers.”

“You haven’t,” JARVIS replied. “Ms Potts says that they were sent into SI by a fan.”

“Get the name,” Tony said. “These are really good and if we do decide to do some comics, we could do worse than use them.”

“Yes, sir.”

Tony frowned as he continued to follow the storyline of the comics. The team dynamics they were showing were… weird. And yet, there was something about them that was as familiar as the missions. He paused on one page then raised his head.

“J? Can you show me the footage for the mission in March? The one in Nebraska.”

“Of course, sir.”

Screens burst into life around him, showing the video footage from everyone’s armour or helmets. Tony’s eyes flickered from screen to screen and then back down to the comic page in his hand.

“Huh,” he said after several minutes.

He quickly flicked through the rest of the comic pages and then turned to the screens. He pulled up several different missions, both from before and after the fall of SHIELD, and while things were more exaggerated after the fall, the pattern was still there.

“Have you managed to find the name of who drew these?” he finally asked.

“No, sir,” JARVIS replied, sounding perplexed. “There was no return address and as they were apparently hand delivered during a busy period, there was no stamp or postmark.” He paused. “The CCTV in the foyer captured the drop off but the person is wearing a hoodie and a coat that obscures their face and build. I cannot determine who they might be.”

JARVIS had brought up the relevant footage as he’d been making his explanation and Tony could see that he was right. About all that could be said about the person who had dropped the envelope containing the comics off was that they were about 5’5” and of a slim build. Anything else was impossible to determine.

“Sir? Is there an issue with the comics?”

Tony tapped his fingers on the bench. “Did you get a look at them as I was reading them?”

“I did, sir. I shall review them now.”

Tony waited, still tapping his fingers against the bench as his frown deepened. 

“Sir…” JARVIS paused then continued with slow uncertainty. “These comics highlight an… unsettling disregard for your safety and wellbeing on the part of the Avengers. The worst proponent is Captain Rogers, the best is Dr Banner.”

“And when you review the video footage?”

JARVIS was silent again for several minutes. “The footage validates the comics. Sir…?”

“I know,” Tony said. “Either our artist is the world’s best guesser or… something weird is going on.”

“I am inclined to believe the latter,” JARVIS replied. “What do you intend to do?”

“Well, I’m not going to tell the Avengers, for a start,” Tony said dryly. “If these comics are right and I have no reason to think they’re not, apparently Natashalie has been gaslighting me.”

JARVIS’ pause was long and pregnant. “I… had been reluctant to bring it to your attention.”

Tony smiled sadly. “You mean you did try and bring it to my attention, and I dismissed it out of hand.”

“…Yes, sir.”

Tony nodded. “So, if I tell them about this and let them see the comics, I’m guessing she’s going to try and gaslight me into dismissing everything in them. So… let’s not do that.”

“Then what will you do?”

Tony flipped over the comics to the last page and tapped the final panel on that page. It showed a bald woman in strange robes standing in front of a large building. In her hand was a business card and on the card was written an address – 177A Bleeker Street. 

“I’m going to find this person and see if she can give me some answers.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We move to Bleeker Street and see a little bit about what's going on from that side of things.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I had some ideas about where to take this so you get a new chapter. It's only a short one again but I'm working on a third chapter and that one will be a little bit more meaty. :D
> 
> There are, again, more questions asked than answered in this chapter but answers will start to come from chapter 3 onwards.

“Are you sure this is wise?”

The Ancient One had been looking rather pensively out of the great window of the New York Sanctum but now she turned and smiled faintly at Karl Mordo.

“You know my reasons.”

Mordo frowned. “I do but… I thought we did not interfere with time.”

“_We_ did not,” the Ancient One replied. “The Eye of Agamotto did.”

Mordo fell silent. “Is that…?” he began before trying again. “Has that happened before?”

The Ancient One turned back to stare out the window. “Once. The archive of the events that precipitated it and those that came afterward were restricted to the Sorcerer Supreme.”

Mordo’s frown deepened. “Why?”

“Because they did not succeed in changing the event that caused the Eye to take action,” the Ancient One said with a sigh. “The one involved did not believe them.”

“Why not?” Mordo asked. “If it was predicting their downfall, why wouldn’t they have believed us?”

The Ancient One glanced at him, her expression full of quiet mirth. “Believe a mysterious and secretive order of magic users in a time when even the whisper of magic would bring out the frenzied mobs bearing pitchforks and torches?”

Mordo sighed. “When you put it that way,” he said wryly. He frowned thoughtfully. “But why? From what you’ve said, Stark succeeds. He defeats Thanos.”

“He does,” the Ancient One said with a small nod. “That is not the cause of the Eye’s actions. It is what comes after.”

“Stark was meant to do something else?”

The Ancient One shook her head. “No, more monumental than that. The Infinity Stones were destroyed by Thanos. In doing so, he has placed the entire universe in danger.”

“How?”

“Nature abhors a vacuum.”

Mordo frowned at that simple phrase then his eyes widened. “There are no stones in our universe but… they exist in others?”

The Ancient One nodded. “They do and that will cause a problem. A convergence, if you will, as the stones in other dimensions seek to fill the void here while still maintaining their place in their own dimension, thus dragging their dimension along with them.”

Mordo winced at the implications of that. “And Stark?”

“Is key to it all,” the Ancient One said. “Or rather his support and enabling of the Avengers. In wanting a force to stand against Thanos, he inadvertently brought about the universe’s downfall.” She paused for a moment. “Or rather, his support of that _particular_ force. His wish for a force to stand against Thanos is laudable and very necessary.”

“And that is why you intend to reveal us to him.”

She turned now and looked at Mordo squarely. “It is. We possess the Time Stone. There is one other Stone here on Earth that must be found before it can cause irreversible chaos. And there must be defenders to stand against Thanos when he comes. Our focus must be on the Time Stone and our sacred duty but that does not mean we cannot also stand with this force to be.”

Mordo didn’t look entirely convinced but he also had the air of a man who wasn’t willing to argue with her about the matter. “And this… Stephen Strange?”

The Ancient One’s expression became pensive and even sorrowful. “He is needed. Events will be pushed into motion that are beyond my control but he will find his way to us. When he seeks us out, I will want you to find him and bring him in.”

“Here?” Mordo asked.

The Ancient One shook her head as she turned back to the window. “Kamar-Taj. Pangborn will send him there. But we do not need to move hastily. Keep an eye on the news. You will know when it is time to return to Nepal.”

Mordo bowed slightly and moved to leave. He stopped before he’d even taken a step and hesitated. The Ancient One did not turn to look at him but he knew she was waiting to see if he would speak.

“Will you tell him?”

The Ancient One sighed. “Yes. I will not start our association by lying to him.”

Mordo frowned and looked down at the floor. “Would it not be wise to have someone he knows here for that? It is… distressing.”

“It would but he will come today,” the Ancient One said. “We do not have time.”

“He may not believe you.”

“I can show him the truth if needed.” She now turned fully and walked over to join him, a comforting smile curving her lips. “You worry too much, Mordo.”

“Sometimes I feel I am the only one who does,” he muttered before he could stop himself.

The Ancient One chuckled. “Sometimes you are but I would not like you to think that I do not value your counsel and your caution. Both are heard and understood.”

Mordo bowed his head, looking mollified. “Thank you.”

The Ancient One’s smile widened briefly then she placed a hand on his arm. “Now, let us go downstairs. He will be here soon and we should be ready.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony goes to Bleeker Street and gets a whole lot of answers. And a whole lot of questions.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a note timeline-wise - this sits after CAWS and before AOU. I'm not sure if I mentioned that before. So, they're in the Tower before they move to the Compound (which we'll see more of in the next chapter) and Sam is around but not Wanda or Vision.

Tony stood on the sidewalk outside 177A Bleeker Street and stared up at the building in front of him. It didn’t look like much from the outside but considering that his attempts to get any sort of readings from within had been a bit hit and miss due to some sort of interference, there was obviously more going on than met the eye. It got his hackles up a bit and made him wish he had his suitcase suit with him. He had a suit on standby not far away, but he was still twitchy. The only thing that kept him going was the fact that whoever had sent him those comics didn’t seem to want to hurt him, so he was willing to take things on trust for the moment.

He squared his shoulders and walked up the stairs. He raised his hand to knock on the door but before his knuckles could meet the wood, the door swung open to reveal a heavyset Asian man with a bland, inscrutable expression on his face.

Tony wobbled for a moment then lowered his hand. “Uh…” he began.

“Please come inside, Mr Stark,” the man said, stepping aside and gesturing for Tony to enter. “The Ancient One is expecting you.”

There was a large part of Tony that wanted to run screaming from the weirdness but once again, the contents of the comics made him step inside instead. He looked around curiously as the man closed the door behind him then his attention was caught by the woman coming down the stairs. The one from the final panel of the comics. She was completely bald and wearing strange saffron clothes that were halfway between robes and some sort of martial arts outfit. He had no idea how old she might be other than ‘somewhere between maybe 30 and possibly 60’. The only other thing he noted about her was that she made the hair on the back of his neck stand on end.

“Mr Stark,” she said with a small inclination of her head. She gestured towards a nearby door. “Will you join me for tea?”

“Everybody knows my name here. Big happy family, huh?” Tony muttered. From the soft chuckle behind him, the man who’d opened the door got the reference and that oddly relaxed him. They couldn’t be _that_ weird if they were watching Hollywood movies. When Tony continued, he spoke louder. “Sure. Why not?”

He followed the woman into the room where there was a tea set waiting beside a low table surrounded by cushions. Tony raised an eyebrow at that but settled down onto one of the cushions without complaint. The woman poured the tea and after a moment’s hesitation, Tony picked up the cup she set in front of him and took a sip. 

“You know, I usually consider tea to be little more than leaf water, but this is good,” he said with a small nod in the woman’s direction.

She smiled faintly in response. “I shall see that some is sent to you.” She paused for a moment. “I am known as the Ancient One and I know that you are here about the… package that was sent to you.”

Tony took another sip of his tea and swallowed a fair few comments about the woman’s name. “I am.” He gave her a long look. “They were… surprisingly accurate.”

“More accurate than you realised.”

Tony nodded. “Yeah. Funny how it took seeing it in black and white to realise what was going on.”

“Frog in boiling water?” the Ancient One said with a small, sympathetic smile.

“Something like that.” Tony put his cup down and had a hand down his face. “Why? And how?”

The Ancient One didn’t pretend not to know what he was talking about. “I shall answer the second question first, if I may.” Tony waved a hand and she continued, “I am the Sorcerer Supreme, the leader of an Order known as the Masters of the Mystic Arts. We have many duties and one of them is guarding a number of magical and mystical artefacts. Three days ago, one of those artefacts… possessed, for lack of a better word, one of our masters. Under its influence, she drew those comics and yesterday afternoon, she took them to your tower. She then returned and passed the artefact to me, whereupon it imparted certain… knowledge to me before returning to its normal state. I have spent the time since then assimilating that knowledge.”

Tony stared at her for a long moment. “Okay,” he said slowly. “And why would this artefact give a damn about me?”

“That was part of the knowledge I was given.” The Ancient One sipped at her tea as she marshalled her thoughts. “The artefact in question is one we call the Eye of Agamotto, a pleasant little bit of obfuscation aimed at hiding its true nature. You have, in fact, already encountered two of its… brethren.”

Tony frowned. “I have?”

The Ancient One nodded. “The tesseract and the sceptre carried by Loki during the invasion.”

Tony stilled and picked up his cup again almost unconsciously. He sipped at the tea as he reviewed what he and SHIELD had known about the two items in question. “So, what are they?”

“They are called Infinity Stones,” the Ancient One replied. “They are… immensely powerful. They are singularities given form by the creation of the universe and each has a… signature power, if you will. The tesseract contained the Space Stone, the sceptre holds the Mind Stone and the Eye of Agamotto is the receptacle for the Time Stone.”

Tony’s gaze flicked up to hers. “Time Stone? I guess that explains how this master of yours knew about what’s been going on.”

“It does,” the Ancient One said with a nod. “And the Stone gifted me with knowledge of the future and a… task. To prevent that future from coming about.”

“Prevent it?” Tony echoed. “Why? What happens? And why I am involved?”

“A great many things happen but the key point is that at one point in the future, the six Infinity Stones are brought together and then subsequently destroyed.” The Ancient One’s expression became sombre. “And that puts our universe in danger. Nature abhors a vacuum, Mr Stark. You know that. The destruction of the stones risks endangering the entire multiverse by causing a convergence that could destroy everything.”

Tony grimaced then sighed and looked weary. “What did I do wrong?”

“You supported the Avengers,” the Ancient One said. “Or rather you supported that _particular_ group of Avengers.”

Tony gave her a long careful look as though he hadn’t expected that answer and yet was somehow not entirely surprised. “Explain.”

The Ancient One cradled her cup in her hands and sighed. “There is much I cannot tell you for risk of preventing things that we actually _do_ want to have happen but the short version is that, of the existing Avengers, only yourself and Colonel Rhodes do not make a catastrophically bad decision.”

“What about Bruce?” Tony asked with a frown. “Dr Banner.”

The Ancient One considered her words. “Dr Banner has his own path to walk, for good or ill. Right now, that path is in flux due to the Eye’s actions but either way, he will always walk his own path.”

Tony frowned, not really understanding what she was saying but also kind of agreeing with it in some ways. The Ancient One got his attention again by holding up one hand.

“I should say that, without this knowledge I have been given, no one could have known that supporting the Avengers was the wrong decision,” she said. “You made the best decision you could with the information you had at hand. It was only when the future paths narrowed down to one that the Time Stone took action.”

Tony frowned. “Wait… if the Time Stone gets destroyed in the future, how could it know to act now?”

The Ancient One smiled. “You are indeed as clever as they say. It was not _our_ Time Stone that instigated the contact.”

Tony blinked then nodded slowly. “You said the multiverse was in danger. So… one of the Time Stones in an alternate universe or rather from another part of the multiverse triggered the Time Stone here?”

“Essentially correct,” she said with a nod. “Should the Infinity Stones be destroyed, the consequences will be catastrophic. Our universe is not the only one eager to avoid this.”

Tony frowned. “So… I just cut them loose?” He shook his head. “I _can’t_. It doesn’t matter what I think of them, I _need_ them. Even more so now. What you’ve told me… I’ve been afraid there’ll be another invasion, and this just says I’m right.” He looked at her imploringly. “We _barely_ beat them last time. Only did so because Selvig wasn’t as tightly under control as Loki thought and put in a failsafe and the World Security Council were prepared to write off Manhattan.”

The Ancient One inclined her head. “It is true that you will need a team but…” She smiled faintly. “The Masters of the Mystic Arts will stand beside you and… did you really think that the Avengers were the sum total of the Enhanced in this world?”

Tony stared at her for a moment then he started laughing. “Touché,” he said when he got himself under control again. “I’ll bet SHIELD knew of a bunch that I could dig up from the data dump.” He snorted. “HYDRA too for that matter.”

The Ancient One smiled at him. “An excellent plan. We will, of course, help however we can.” She sobered. “Now, Mr Stark…”

“Call me Tony.”

“Tony,” she said with a small nod. “There is something else I must tell you that is… more personal and far less pleasant.”

Tony arched an eyebrow. “What we’ve been talking about so far has been pleasant?”

The Ancient One chuckled. “A point but this… I assure you that what I have to tell you is the truth. I can prove it to you, should you need me to do so, but…” She gave him a shrewd look. “I suspect I will not need to.”

“Okay,” Tony said uneasily. “Now that you’ve made your ominous introduction, hit me.”

“You are under the impression that your parents died in a car accident,” she said, and Tony froze. “It was not an accident. They were murdered, assassinated to be precise. By the Winter Soldier.”

Tony went very, very still. He stared at the Ancient One intently, as though trying to find the lie in what she’d said but there was nothing there. He wasn’t sure how he knew but he did. She was telling him the truth.

“The Winter Soldier,” he said quietly. “Steve’s friend, Bucky Barnes.” His eyes narrowed. “Does Steve know?”

He didn’t really need her to tell him. She might be adept at schooling her expression but when she allowed it, her eyes showed a wealth of emotion. All that was there now was resignation and sorrow.

“He does,” she said, the sorrow audible in her voice. “As does Natasha Romanov. Sam Wilson is beginning to suspect there is more going on than appears on the surface, but his loyalty is absolute. He will not dig deeper.”

Tony knew his expression had iced over but the Ancient One didn’t flinch. Nor did she move or protest when he got up and started pacing around the room, she simply waited, calm and patient, while he paced and thought. After about half an hour, the door eased open and a man came in holding a tray that held three glasses and a dark brown bottle. He sat down next to the Ancient One and waited. He was far easier to read than the Ancient One. He was worried and uncertain and very protective of the woman he was sitting next to.

“What would have happened?” Tony said, his voice harsh and hoarse. “If things had continued as they would have? Did? Whatever.”

The Ancient One sighed. “Nothing good. The secret would have come out, as such secrets always do, in the worst possible circumstances.” She gave him a sympathetic look. “That was why I knew I had to tell you now, today, when we first met.” She gestured for him to return. “Now, come. Sit. Mordo has brought us something a little stronger than tea.”

Mordo took that as his cue and cracked open the seal on the bottle. He poured small measures of the liquor inside into the glasses as Tony came and sat down again. He took the glass offered to him with a nod and them sipped at the liquor.

The taste made him cough and he frowned down into the glass for a moment before finally managing a small laugh. “Good god. What is this made of?”

“It’s Nepalese,” the Ancient One said with an impish smile. “Raksi. It’s made from kodo millet.”

Tony snorted. “I don’t think I’ve drunk anything like this since I was in college.”

“It’s usually reserved for special occasions, festivals and the like,” Mordo said. He raised his glass a little. “To Howard and Maria Stark.” The Ancient One echoed his toast.

Tony blinked then bowed his head for a moment. He raised his glass. “To Mom and Dad.”

They drank again and silence settled for a moment until Tony finally cleared his throat. “So, any other bombshells you intend to drop on me today?”

The Ancient One’s smile was kind and a little melancholy. “No.” She made a small noise that might have been a laugh. “To be sure, there are more but whether you need to know them.” She waggled her hand. “Debateable.”

Tony raised an eyebrow. “Really?”

“That is the nature of time and knowledge, Tony,” she said contemplatively. “How much does one need to know? How much do _you_ need to know before you start to change the timeline for the worse? Or the better? Or just differently?”

Tony frowned. “You said some things need to happen.”

She nodded. “Some things need to happen. Some things _ought_ to happen and should not be prevented.” She paused and cocked her head. “And some things ought to be changed.”

“Master?” Mordo prompted when the Ancient One remained silent for several minutes. Tony’s eyebrow flicked up momentarily at the mode of address and he made note of it for the future. Always good to know those sorts of things.

“Some things cannot be changed but some things can… and ought to be,” the Ancient One said with determination. 

“What do I need to do?” Tony asked.

The smile the Ancient One gave him was kind. “Nothing. This matter falls more under our purview than yours and we shall take care of it.”

Tony hesitated for a moment then he finally nodded. He wasn’t sure why he was willing to trust the Ancient One… except perhaps for the fact that she hadn’t lied to him. In fact, she’d been willing to tell him a very ugly truth and didn’t try to minimise it. She had simply stayed, quiet and supportive.

The weight of what he’d just been told thundered back onto his shoulders and he scrubbed his face with one hand. “Yeah, okay,” he said, his voice suddenly wobbly as the fact of his parents’ deaths being murder suddenly brought a whole barrel of other questions to mind.

“Tony,” the Ancient One said, calm and commanding yet not unkind. He raised his head to find her watching him solemnly. “May I offer a word of advice?”

“Sure,” Tony said with a shrug.

“Do not act hastily in anything you plan to do once you leave these walls,” she said.

Tony stared at her for a long moment then he nodded slowly. “Yeah,” he said, letting a breath out. 

He needed to think about this, do some of his own research and see just how deep the rot went in both the Avengers and in his own house. He also needed to look a little deeper into SHIELD and their activities and from there into HYDRA, since the two could hardly be separated.

“Yeah, you’re right.”


End file.
